Salmon and Steelhead Journal

A few weeks back, there was a post regarding a Wild Chinook that was pictured in Salmon & Steelhead Journal. The fish was detailed as having been caught in the Snoqualmie, and it was obvious that the fish was out of the water, as well as mishandled if it was going to be released.

I wrote the editor of the S&S journal this email:

On 11/23/05 8:31 AM, "Fleshy Headed Mutant" <@yahoo.com> wrote:

Poaching

Editor:

In your recent internet issue, I noticed something odd in the trophy pictures. Photo B shows a lucky fisherman holding a nice chinook caught in the Snoqualmie River. In that particular river, chinook are not to be targeted, and if you do catch one incidentally, you are to immediately release it without removing it from the water. The chinook run in the Snoqualmie is listed as endangered, and this picture could be construed as poaching per the regulations for the Snoqualmie River.

I wanted to bring this to your attention and see if I might be missing something or there were some other circumstances around this item. Being as that the Snoqualmie is my "home river", I have extra concern about any poaching going on there.

There is some confusion as to where the fish was caught, Snoqualmie or Snohomish, and whether the fish was released. I've tried to contact the person who submitted the photo, but no luck. At this point I'm not going to get involved. And as you can imagine I've been contacted several times by several concerned people. Thanks for the note.

Looks like it was decent of the guy to get back to you, and it seems like he at least realizes the problem. I think any publication should really have a strong fact checking department to avoid these kinds of problems. It's obvious from this that it doesn't work for them to just throw in any old picture they get. Even if this is a small journal, they shouldn't be letting slips like this go by. Not very good journalism if you ask me. And Mr. Hoglund, as a representative of the journal, should be acting much more proactively if you ask me. Not that anyone is asking me. Makes me think much less about the journal though.
just thoughts.

Jason has it right.Checking facts is critical to any periodical. During my tenure at Canoe Magazine and Flyfishing & Tying Journal the editorial staff spent a lot of time checking facts. It is however increasingly difficult with rule changes always coming up on the horizon and reduced staffing. One thing for sure, never run out and go fishing at a spot that has been written up before checking the regs.
Good Fishing,
Les Johnson

Jason has it right.Checking facts is critical to any periodical. During my tenure at Canoe Magazine and Flyfishing & Tying Journal the editorial staff spent a lot of time checking facts. Good Fishing,
Les Johnson

Click to expand...

Les, I couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately some publications don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. This is the same magazine that mislabeled several hugely popular local RIVERS in another article within that same issue. At first I thought they were goofing on their readers like Sport Fishing does with their annual April Fool's article. Not a goof..........just a giant booboo. Too bad too, there are some good things in the rag but when you pay $6 for a magazine, you deserve accuracy. Here is the thread on that.........it appeared in the same article with the photo that Mike refers to:

I believe that every magazine, at some point or another, has put out something that they probably should not have. I will not mention any names, but there was one popular fly magazine that had one whole article on an illegal fishery.

It just goes to show, that as Les and Mingo posted: checking facts is critical.......and always check the regs before heading out.